Underground Power Supply System in City of Mangaluru to be INSTALLED in the nearest future -Will Employ 3000 Linemen in DK/Mangaluru Soon’- State Energy Minister K J George
Mangaluru: Responding to a suggestion by B.M. Farooq, MLC, and D. Vedavyasa Kamath, MLA, at an interaction programme with people’s representatives of Dakshina Kannada district organised by Mangalore Electricity Supply Company, the Minister for Energy K.J. George said having selected Mysuru city for the underground power cabling project, the department will also consider Mangaluru City Corporation area for a similar exercise. The project would be undertaken on an annuity basis in Mysuru and a similar method could be adopted in Mangaluru too, the Minister said.
Under the annuity mode, a private player executes the work and the cost would be collected from the consumers, he said. Mr Farooq said underground cabling was good for a city like Mangaluru. MLA Vedavyas Kamath urged the Minister to ensure that the overhead power lines on the Mangaluru Dasara procession circuit from Kudroli to Kudroli via Kulur Ferry Road, Narayana Guru Circle, M.G. Road, PVS, New Chitra Talkies and Car Street, be taken underground. Overhead lines on Car Street and Mangaladevi Temple Car Street were taken underground during the Smart City project, the MLA said.
The MLA also urged the department to take high and low-tension power lines near the Urwa Mahaganapathi Temple underground to facilitate the Rathotsava. The temple recently got a new chariot and the presence of overhead lines obstruct the Rathotsava, he said. Responding to this, George said the Dasara Circuit underground project was estimated to cost ₹30 crore and would have to be taken up separately. However, the Mahaganapathi temple lines would be taken underground immediately, he assured. Kamath demanded the Dasara Circuit be undertaken as a pilot when the project to take overhead lines in the city underground commences. The Minister agreed to the same.
The minister also said that 3,000 linemen will be appointed soon. The minister said that there is a shortage of 6,000 linemen in the state. “To ensure that local youths get preference, physical and other tests will be conducted across the state on the same day. In Dakshina Kannada, people from North Karnataka join the department and get transferred to their hometown after serving for five years. As a result, the district has been facing a shortage of linemen,” he said.
Puttur MLA Ashok Kumar Rai offered training for locals in the skills required for the job and sought the support of the MESCOM. The minister directed Mescom MD Ms Padmavathi to immediately take initiatives to impart skill training for locals. Corporator Naveen D’Souza brought to the notice of the minister about power disruption at the Thumbe water pumping station. The minister directed Mescom officials to look into the issue. The minister said that the department is focusing on harvesting solar energy. Steps will be taken to expedite the solarisation of irrigation pump sets (IP sets).
“Effective implementation of Pradhan Mantri-Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) for solarisation of IP sets will help in meeting the demands of the farmers. For this, solar parks will be set up close to every substation in the state. We have already identified 800 such sub-stations for the purpose,” he said. The government has also increased the subsidy provided under the KUSUM-B scheme. Earlier, a 30% subsidy was provided by the state and another 30 % came from the Centre. Now, the state has increased the subsidy to 50 %, he added.
KCCI President Ananthesh Prabhu Submits Memorandum to Minister K J George on Infrastructure-Related Issues
The Related Infrastructure Issues are:
1 )Underground laying of 33KV Powerline inside Baikampady Industrial Area.
Considering our region is prone to heavy monsoons and storms caused by depressions in the Arabian Sea, electricity gets constantly disrupted. During heavy rains and storms, uprooting of trees or snapping of the branches are common and they cause frequent power outages. Moreover, the 33 KV overhead electricity lines in many places are passing over the existing functional industries. Hence underground cabling of these lines is a good and permanent solution to this problem.
2) Setting up of a 24×7 centralized full-fledged MESCOM service station at the Baikampady industrial area.
Many times line faults and defects at night times have taken a long time to get rectified and there are incidences when the power supply was cut off for the entire night due to difficulty in locating the faults and the non-availability of vehicles and staff to attend to the faults.
There is an urgent need to establish a full-fledged 24×7 service station which is properly staffed to ensure the faults are rectified quickly and industrial operations and production are not disrupted for want of quality power.
3) Reduction of LT 5 Tariff for Small Industries
Mescom has demanded tariff revision at a time when the total demand from the Industrial sector is coming down. Industrial power consumption is showing a decreasing trend year after year which proves the Industrial Slowdown. Unfortunately, MESCOM has proposed an increase of 20 paise per unit but they have sought an increase of Rs 5 per KW which will increase the charges to 39 paise. There will be no relief to MSMEs.
Small Scale Industries have been undergoing severe hardship on account of the global recession, Demonetization, reduced sales and the recessionary conditions prevailing in the domestic market for the last two years. In their reply to our objections, MESCOM has agreed and admitted that we are also part of the same category. We have been requesting the honourable commission for the last two years to reduce tariffs for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) under LT 5 Category to enable them to survive otherwise it will lead to closure of many units and loss of jobs. We therefore request you to kindly reduce the power tariff for MSME under the LT5 category by Rs 2 per unit.
4) Request to reduce electricity tax which is currently at 9% to 3%.
As we have already requested, we again request you to reduce the electricity tax from 9% to 3% which will help reduce tariffs to consumers.
5) LT extension to 176 KVA with no additional cost to industries.
With the extension of LT from 66 to 176 KVA MESCOM has steeply increased the recovery of expenditure for the Supply of electricity from Rs. 1950 per KW to Rs 8500 per KW. This move has nullified the good initiative of the extension of LT to 176KVA and is depriving this benefit to MSMEs. Therefore, kindly ensure that the rate is retained at Rs 1950 per KW only and not increase it so steeply. Further, all the investments for transformers, cables and poles are invested by the industry and this should be gradually deducted from the fixed charges levied to us as the idea of levying these charges is for recovering the cost of providing the connection to us.
6) Electrical Inspectorate charges for Solar and Captive Power Plants.
Recently Govt. of Karnataka has come up with a notification, wherein any Micro, Small and Medium Industries that have a captive power generating capacity in excess of 500 KVA either through a generator or through solar energy, then a charge of Rs 0.20 per unit shall be collected towards the electrical inspectorate charges.
Since we are already paying annual charges for inspection by the electrical inspectorate through challan to the department directly, we request your good office to kindly withdraw this notification of levying 20 paise per unit electrical inspectorate charges for the Micro, Small and Medium industries which is already reeling under high power tariff.
7) Cumbersome Procedure for Electrical Tax Exemption in case of adopting an alternate form of energy:
As per the industry policy 2020-25, the Govt. of Karnataka has incentivized industries to opt for renewable energies. One such benefit is wherever industries have adopted renewable energy sources be it solar or any other alternate form of energy to meet their electricity requirements, then electricity tax for a period of 5 years is waived on this and an additional subsidy of Rs 0.50 per unit will be given by the Government.
In the case of electricity tax exemption the process is very cumbersome wherein the Joint Director, DIC issues a certificate to the industry confirming the investment but the process of obtaining the exemption is a tedious one wherein- the MESCOM will process the application and forward it to the Chief of electrical inspectorate office in Bangalore who will look into the same and after his approval forward it again to MESCOM Commissionerate, who will further process and provide the final approval. This process is now taking around 6 months to 8 months denying the benefit to the unit. We request that this process be completed locally within the district itself and make it a time-bound process of about 3 months only.
8) Unnecessary rules for self-execution of Electrical connections.
For self-execution of electricity connections, all the formalities that are being followed by KPTCL are insisted upon thereby delaying the power connection. For eg., all the materials are procured from approved vendors but again inspections are insisted at the manufacturer’s site. This causes inordinate delay and also cost overruns which adversely impacts the industrial atmosphere of the state. We wish to bring to your kind notice that this is being insisted on despite a performance guarantee from the party who is executing the work for themself.
Memorandum Submitted by ANANTHESH V. PRABHU, Director/President, KCCI
